Levosimendan, a calcium sensitizer, has an organ protective profile through the inhibition of inflammatory mediators and cytokines in critical conditions, such as heart failure, ischemia-reperfusion injury, and sepsis. The survival effect of levosimendan for acute liver failure has not been examined yet. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were examined in the D-galactosamine hydrochloride and lipopolysaccharide (GalN/LPS) model. Levosimendan was injected intraperitoneally before GalN/LPS treatment. Survival was monitored for 7 days. For biochemical analyses, liver and blood samples were collected from the rats at 1 and 8 h after GaIN/LPS treatment. The pretreatment of levosimendan at 4 mg/kg significantly increased survival in GalN/LPS rats. In the liver specimen, levosimendan significantly inhibited the activation of nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) at 1 h, and significantly decreased the mRNA expression of inflammatory mediators, including inducible nitric oxide synthase and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), at 8 h. In serum, levosimendan decreased the levels of nitrite, a metabolite of nitric oxide, and TNF-α protein, as well as aspartate aminotransferase and alanine aminotransferase. These results indicated that Levosimendan ameliorated liver dysfunction and survival in acute liver failure model rats through the suppression of NF-κB activation.
Keywords: D-galactosamine; inducible nitric oxide synthase; levosimendan; lipopolysaccharide; nuclear factor-κB; sepsis; septic acute liver injury.